For frustrated drivers on Interstate 66, there may be no relief in sight from constant traffic jams. Even as the Virginia Department of Transportation nears completion of the first “spot improvement” on I-66 westbound — a two-mile stretch of new lane between Fairfax Drive and Sycamore Street — officials say that’s all the widening the interstate will get for now, at least within the Beltway.
It comes down to two problems: politics and money.
For Bob Chase of the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance, it’s politics.
“It is Arlington — not the public, the elected officials. It’s just always been a kind of religion with Arlington officials that you cannot widen 66. It just doesn’t make sense. Why wouldn’t you add 12 feet of pavement and provide major traffic relief?” he said.
But it’s really more about dollar signs, Arlington Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman said. Despite Arlington’s presence on the Transportation Planning Board that would have to approve the widening, Arlington by itself doesn’t have the power to get in the way of more lanes, he said.
“It would cost vast sums of money to do — money that no one has,” Zimmerman said.
“It’s an inefficient way to spend transportation dollars. And there is no problem you would solve if you spent half a billion dollars expanding it from what it is now.”
Zimmerman said the bottlenecks of Theodore Roosevelt Bridge and Constitution Avenue would still plague traffic even if the interstate were widened, not to mention that the construction would disrupt traffic for years.
Virginia Secretary of Transportation Sean Connaughton said widening the I-66 within the Beltway remains on a wish list until it has more supporters.
“If we could come to an agreement on widening it, we would find the money. It’s that high of a priority,” he said.
For now the commonwealth is working on the first spot improvement, a $14.2 million project due to wrap up Dec. 5. It’s also conducting two studies on I-66 promised to local leaders in 2009. Once those are complete, two more spot improvements may get funded.
